GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 34:29-33
Click to listen to this devotion.
29 Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 He went up to the House of the LORD, with all the men of Judah and the people who lived in Jerusalem, together with the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small. In their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD. 31 And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. 32 Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin establish it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. 33 Josiah removed all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel. He urged everyone in Israel to serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the LORD the God of their fathers.
There are two words that are often used with a covenant. One is “to make” or “cut” a covenant, as in Genesis 15:18. In this sense, a covenant, agreement or treaty is made in which one or more animals are killed and literally cut into two or more parts. The parties who make the covenant then walk between the pieces, with the declaration: “May what happened to this animal happen to me if I fail to keep my part of this covenant.”
The other word is “establish,” using one of two or three different words. The idea is that the king caused or commanded the people to uphold and stand by the terms of the covenant. This is the thought of the king’s command in verse 32.
The contents of the covenant were only about the faith of the people: “To walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments.” While the commandments may have been brand new for most or all of the people, they had heard them now. In verse 30 we are told that the king read the words of the Book (or scroll) of the Law in the hearing of all the people. He read all of it. Out loud. Which would have taken all day. The best place to do this was in the massive courtyard of Solomon’s temple. The stone blocks and pillars would have carried the echo of his voice everywhere. The king read; the people listened. And now, he told them, this covenant bound them to the words.
Along with the commandments were the testimonies and statutes. A testimony is a statement given as proof, often with a witness or an oath. The testimony of the Lord is often a divine command to do something in a specific way, such as the methods for keeping festivals or making sacrifices. Statutes are commanded or prescribed tasks, often having to do with the day-to-day civil law.
Our prophet says that Josiah also “removed all the abominations” from the territory or land belonging to Israel and to Judah. This might be a recap of what we’ve already read in verses 6-7 of this chapter, when beginning in the twelfth year of his reign he traveled throughout Judah and Israel to destroy the idols, the altars, the high places, and the other things associated with idolatry. But now we see that he also “urged” the people to follow God with their whole hearts. Translations vary over the term weya’aved, a hifil or causative verb meaning “to urge, compel, force, or entice” people to do a thing. Since we’re also told that they did just this as long as he lived, it could be any of these things, but to continually force people to obey God is not at all the way that one changes people’s hearts. It’s better, I think, to take this as an urging by the king, and at least partly by his actions as much as his words. Josiah led by doing, by showing, and by demonstrating his sincere faith in God.
The people did not turn away from God while Josiah lived, but his wicked sons would not do the same as their father had done. Still, although we’ve come to the end of this chapter, we’re not done with Josiah. He had more faith to show, more urging to do, and we will get a reminder of the coming Messiah in Josiah’s actions and obedience to God in chapter 35, just before everything in Judah comes crashing down in chapter 36.
Show your faith, and teach your children to show their faith with what they say, with what they do, and even in the way that they think. Trust in the Lord to help the next generation, because you and I won’t be here forever. But as long as we’re here, we still have work to do.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Listen or watch Bible classes online. https://splnewulm.org/invisible-church/
Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2025
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 34:29-33 The covenant